Country diary: Why does the bird bob its head? | Country diary

The morning after the night’s frost, the field basks in sunshine. Waders are foraging among the grazing sheep and my gaze falls on the bobbing head of a redshank as it probes a tuft of grass. A golden plover dashes past and my view switches. At speed, the plover’s head is steady; but when it slows, the head starts to bob; and then the bird pecks at the ground. Head-bobbing is found in about half of all avian species. It happens for similar reasons that my mammalian eyes make involuntary flickers as they look at something; that is, to build

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